Meditation Monday – Revisiting The Present of Surprise

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by Christine Sine

Yesterday I spoke at Grace Fellowship Neighborhood Church in San Francisco. They’re doing a ebook research on my ebook The Present of Surprise and I had the privilege of launching their research, so I assumed I’d take this chance to share with you a few of what I spoke about.

Wonder is a fantastic present from God. It modifications our way of living. Even fleeting experiences of awe focus us away from self-interest to concern for others and orient our actions in the direction of the wants of these round us – so vital in at present’s world. Tomorrow we are going to expertise an eclipse of the solar. Certainly one of my mates is travelling to Texas to benefit from the full expertise. I’ll not see this eclipse however I do keep in mind the final one. Folks in Seattle gathered in parks, laughed, cried and sang along with strangers. It was an exhilarating expertise of awe and marvel.  

Possibly that’s a part of what our scripture studying this morning is all about; Except you dramatically change your mind-set and turn into teachable, and find out about heaven’s kingdom realm with the wide-eyed marvel of a kid, you’ll by no means have the ability to enter in. These phrases riveted my consideration once I was making ready to jot down The Present of Surprise. 

Once I requested my Fb mates What childlike traits they thought make us match for the dominion a tremendous listing emerged: playfulness, awe and marvel, creativeness, curiosity, love of nature, gratitude and plenty of extra. It was this listing that shaped the premise for my ebook. 

In accordance with Stuart Brown head of the Institute for Play, nothing lights up the mind like play. He believes it’s as vital as oxygen for our survival, God’s biggest present to humankind. Adults must play as a lot as children do. And by play he means unstructured exercise with no set objective in thoughts. It bonds us collectively, heals and de-stresses us and tells folks we’re protected to be round. 

Awe and marvel is probably much more vital. A every day dose of awe modifications our angle to the world. It strikes us from individualism and materialism to group and the wants of others. It makes us extra caring and compassionate folks. It additionally brings therapeutic to those that are traumatized and affected by PTSD. 

But we dwell in a world of play deprivation, awe and marvel depletion, and nature deficit dysfunction. I’m wondering if we endure from God depletion too because of this. 

Our world shimmers with the glory of God, however we have now misplaced our means to understand that marvel and subsequently to find the therapeutic energy it holds. Day Schildkret – Native American artist who gathers pure objects and crafts them into unique mandalas that are illustrated in his stunning ebook Morning Altars says There’s a wealth of magnificence and marvel littered throughout us, proper outdoors our personal entrance door. We’ve simply forgotten the way to see it…. 

Robert McFarlane in one other fascinating ebook, Landmarks suggests we have now not solely misplaced our means to understand marvel however we have now additionally misplaced the language to specific it. Within the current replace to the Kids’s Oxford Dictionary, some phrases had been taken out and others added. All these eliminated needed to do with nature and all these added needed to do with know-how. We’ve surprised the world out of marvel he says. Even the phrase superior has misplaced its which means. It has turn into extra an expression of appreciation than a puff of awe that one thing is breathtakingly unimaginable. 

McFarlane requires the re-wonderment of the world and as we transfer ahead in our put up pandemic actuality, going through the injustice of systemic racism and of struggle and violence that is very a lot what we’d like. We don’t simply want re-wonderment of the world however re-wonderment of our view of God and a re-wonderment of our impressions of the folks we share the planet with too. All of us are made within the picture of God and each creature has a spark of divine life inside it – now that basically is awe inspiring.  

Embracing re-wonderment, notably whereas writing The Present of Surprise modified me in methods I by no means anticipated, filling me with pleasure and a enjoyment of life I by no means anticipated, particularly within the midst of the world we dwell by which appears stuffed with chaos, injustice and trauma. 

I’m more and more satisfied that rediscovering child-like marvel and the enjoyment of play is important for our religious well being. Awe and marvel, creativeness and curiosity join us to the God who’s current in each second and each factor in a method that nothing else can. These qualities do deliver therapeutic to physique, soul and spirit, transferring us from isolation to group and assist us discover security within the presence of each God and of others. 

Kids expertise awe 100 instances a day, adults hardly ever do. 

Pathway coated with cherry blossoms (c) Christine Sine

On account of my analysis I added a “every day dose of awe” to my religious disciplines. Throughout the pandemic, I developed what I name my awe and marvel walks, reconnecting to the wonderment of God to assist me focus extra intentionally on our actually awe inspiring Creator. These have turn into an extension of my contemplative time and the mainstay of my religious life. They offer me peace within the midst of chaos, and power once I really feel overwhelmed. As I stroll I very intentionally give attention to the awe and marvel of what I see. I have to be very intentional about this. I often wish to give attention to one explicit side of my stroll – the freshly rising spring flowers, the sample of the sky, the folks and canine I cross and greet on my method. I title the issues that fill me with awe, and make pleasure bubble up inside me. In the mean time its the daffodils, tulips and myriad of flowering timber. I savour these sights and my response to them and the revelation of God within the midst of those. Then I come house and browse scripture specializing in that very same response of noticing and naming. 

Yesterday it was my airplane journey from Seattle that offered my every day dose of awe. I used to be the one with my window shutter up when everybody was making an attempt to see their screens. I used to be impressed by the majestic mountains and the meandering rivers. which made me really feel “That’s God doodling down there. .

This doesn’t imply I naively see solely good issues round me, Greg Boyle who works with the homeless in L.A. means that we are able to embrace the marginalized with a way of awe too. – I’m awed by their resilience, perseverance and sense of group.  Greg Boyle says “Awe softens us for the thunder look of God then permits us to look at others in simply the identical method. (That is actually what I expertise on my morning walks. 

As I stroll, I’m not solely caught up within the marvel of God’s magnificence but in addition by the marvel of the depths of God’s ache and of the truth that God is prepared to share our ache. It is a God who will not be distant and unconcerned. Generally I sit within the midst of my ache. I ache and I grieve and marvel at the truth that God grieves with me. I consider those that are attempting to deliver assist to the folks of Gaza, of these combating in Ukraine and different wars across the globe, of these responding to the earthquake in Taiwan. In these folks I really feel I see God reaching out and I’m awed by the proof of God’s love in our midst.  

Awe begets awe. As we take discover of the awe inspiring elements of our world, we begin to discover awe and marvel wherever we go. 

I believe that Jesus at all times maintained his childlike awe and marvel. We see it in his zest for all times, enjoyment of meals, embrace of children – all of which made him despised by the non secular leaders. 

I believe he was typically surrounded by children – a little bit just like the parade of younger those that at all times adopted me once I wandered by way of an African village. In my thoughts, when that little boy got here to supply his fish and loaves to Jesus, He didn’t come alone. I think about him surrounded by a crowd of guffawing dancing children who pushed their good friend ahead as a result of all of them believed Jesus may carry out a miracle. And within the background are Jesus disciples worrying about how they may pay for meals for this enormous crowd or the place on earth they may ship them to purchase their very own meals. I believe that solely the youngsters had the wide-eyed marvel it took to imagine that the miracle Jesus may carry out would give the entire crowd a glimpse of heaven’s abundance..

That’s why Jesus inspired his disciples to turn into like youngsters. 

When was the final time you sat in awe of God’s greatness or jumped in pleasure and shouted your praises to God believing that God nonetheless performs miracles of provision and therapeutic? 

So I’d encourage you at present to look again during the last week or month with the wide-eyed marvel of a kid. What, has impressed and awed you – about God, concerning the world by which we dwell, concerning the folks you’ve met and labored with, concerning the cultures you’ve interacted with? There is no such thing as a restrict to the elements of this world that may assist us expertise awe and marvel and supply us with the instruments we have to higher interact within the ache and struggling of these round us. We do dwell in an exquisite world, with an exquisite God. All we have to do is to open our eyes and take discover.

We’d like a every day dose of awe – and it isn’t simply nature that provides us a way of awe. Listed below are a couple of steps you may wish to attempt now, to embrace the present of marvel:

• Learn some youngsters’s books – Once I requested an excellent good friend who’s an expressive arts therapist the way to open myself to awe and marvel she mentioned – learn some youngsters’s books and he or she has been giving new books to me ever since. This additionally gave me an excuse to revisit my childhood favorites – books that almost all of you’ve by no means heard of “The Magic Pudding; The Adventures of Cuddlepot and Snugglepie and The Bunyip of Berkeley’s Creek. Or ask your children, grandkids or mates’ children which of them they take pleasure in most. Learn them collectively. ‘It’s at all times enjoyable to listen to the enthusiastic responses of kids to inventive phrases and pictures. At a current child bathe I attended the one items that had been requested for had been books from our childhood. It was an absolute delight to listen to folks share the books that also affect their lives and supply a particular glow of reminiscence and to their lives.  

• Spend time with children – all of us want children in our lives. Not solely do they assist us have enjoyable however they ask troublesome questions that encourage us to let go of our pretentious and sometimes unrealistic expectations of ourselves and others. Generally their questions lead us to some deep soul looking out of our personal. Certainly one of my mates goes on common play dates together with her nieces and nephews with the willpower to do every thing they do. Because of this she has jumped in puddles, ran by way of leaves, swung on swings and made angels within the snow. She has rediscovered the enjoyment of play and finds her life extra pleasure stuffed because of this.  

• Reconnect to your senses – children view the world by way of all their senses, however we adults typically restrict ourselves to sight and sound. Even these senses have very confining borders. Go on a nature stroll. Rediscover the enjoyment of smells, the marvel of textures, the delight of daylight by way of timber. Utilizing our senses opens us to a God of pleasure and rejoicing who invitations us to chill out, to sit down in contentment and marvel, or enable ourselves to be distracted by the great thing about a butterfly.

What may you do to open your self to childlike marvel? Would you wish to plan a play date, go for an awe and marvel stroll or simply  sit and benefit from the magnificence and marvel of God. 

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